<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><br><div> http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0803381.htm<br><br><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2"><big><b>Vatican: Receiving Eucharist kneeling will be norm at papal liturgies</b></big><br>
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By Carol Glatz<br>
<a href="http://www.catholicnews.com/index.html" target="new"><font color="#990033">Catholic News Service</font></a><br>
<br>
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while
kneeling before the pope will become the norm at papal liturgies, said
the Vatican's liturgist.<br>
<br>
While current norms allow the faithful to receive the Eucharist in the
hand while standing, Pope Benedict XVI has indicated a preference for
the more traditional practice, said Msgr. Guido Marini, master of papal
liturgical ceremonies.<br>
<br>
Kneeling and receiving Communion on the tongue highlights "the truth of
the real presence (of Christ) in the Eucharist, helps the devotion of
the faithful and introduces the sense of mystery more easily," he said
in a June 26 interview with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.<br>
<br>
Pastorally speaking, he said "it is urgent to highlight and recover"
these aspects of the sacredness and mystery of the Eucharist in modern
times.<br>
<br>
Generally at papal Masses, those receiving Communion from the pope stand and the majority choose to receive on the tongue.<br>
<br>
But starting with a May 22 Mass outside the Basilica of St. John
Lateran, two ushers placed a kneeler in front of the altar and the
chosen communicants all knelt and received on the tongue.<br>
<br>
At a June 15 Mass in the southern Italian port city of Brindisi, the
pope again distributed Communion to the faithful on the tongue while
they were kneeling.<br>
<br>
In the Vatican newspaper interview, Msgr. Marini was asked if this
practice was destined to become the norm in all papal celebrations, and
he replied, "I really think so."<br>
<br>
He said "it is necessary not to forget that the distribution of
Communion in the hand, from a juridical standpoint, remains up to now
an indult," which is an exemption from a general requirement that is
granted by the Vatican to the bishops' conferences which have requested
it. He said the pope's adoption of the traditional practice of
distributing Communion "aims to highlight the force of the valid norm
for the whole church."<br>
<br>
However, the pope's preference for the traditional practice is not
meant to "take anything away from the other" permissible form of
standing or receiving the Eucharist in the hand, he said.<br>
<br>
Msgr. Marini told the Vatican newspaper that Pope Benedict also would
be introducing another change to future papal liturgies during his June
29 Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the patron saints of
Rome.<br>
<br>
He said the pope would begin wearing a shorter pallium -- a circular
woolen band worn over the shoulders with a shorter strip hanging down
the front and back -- similar to the kind worn by Pope John Paul II.<br>
<br>
Pope Benedict had been wearing a pallium similar to ones worn by popes
in the first millennium, when the woolen band was wrapped around the
pope's shoulders and hung down his left side to just below his knees.<br>
<br>
Msgr. Marini said the new pallium was chosen for two reasons: "to more
heavily underline the continued development this liturgical vestment
has had over the span of more than 12 centuries" and to be more
practical.<br>
<br>
The longer pallium the pope had been using created "different and troublesome problems," he said.<br>
<br>
The newer, shorter pallium is decorated with six red crosses instead of
black ones. Like other palliums, the end piece is made of black silk, a
symbol of the black sheep which the shepherd rescues and carries over
his shoulder back to the flock.<br>
<br>
The white woolen pallium is a sign of the pope's and an archbishop's
authority over the Christian community and the Gospel authority of a
shepherd called to carry his sheep, to lead them and to feed them.<br>
<br>
END<br>
</font><br></div><div><div><div><font color="#0000bf"><em><font face="comic sans ms"><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS">Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.</font></em></div></font></em></font></div><div><font color="#0000bf"><em><font face="comic sans ms">Ps 42:1</font></em></font></div><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS" size="1"></font></em> </div><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS" size="1"></font></em> </div></div></div><div><br></div></div><br>
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